Annie Mole's, webmaster of Going Underground, daily web log (blog).
If you like this you'll LURVE One Stop Short of Barking, THE fun and informative BOOK about travelling on the London Underground.
Friday, July 04, 2008
If the Tube were run by Twitter + American Song to Celebrate 4th July
Twitter for people who don't know it, is sort of like a public form of instant messaging (or micro blogging) where you can tell "the world" or just your friends what you've been up to in 140 characters. My twitter profile is here. From being a super geeky thing it's now getting much more mainstream since appearing on FOX TV and having Amazon invest an undisclosed sum in it.
Problem is that it's getting so popular it can't cope with the millions of people now using it and whenever it's over capacity - which as has been many, many times of late you see the Twitter Whale or the Fail Whale (pictured above) as he's now called.
The Twitter Fail Whale now has thousands of fans including myself who celebrate his appearance and the frustration that he causes to millions of people around the world who have to stop twittering and do something else instead. The fan club's founders say he's:
"one of coolest whales we know... you know... the handsome whale and his birdie entourage who show up occasionally on Twitter to let you know that it's time to push back from your keyboard and to go take a break."
The Twitter Fail Whale Song from The Joy of Tech should be sung to the tune of American Pie and you can see the full lyrics by following the link from part of the screen grab below:
Personally, I think that London Underground should have their own Fail Whale and it would be a cartoon of an inflated Boris Johnson head being lifted by hundreds of flying Oystercards. If I was remotely good at PhotoShop or could be arsed, I would make it. But I'm not.
However, I can make an attempt at a couple of Transport for London messages in 140 characters or less, (like the one that opened this post) that you might see if the Tube were run by Twitter.
"Tube is over capacity Too many tourists We'll try to lighten the load making off peak fares higher & we'll have things back to normal soon."
" Tube is over capacity Too many commuters! We'll try to lighten the load making peak fares even higher & we'll have things back to normal soon"
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